Skye wind turbines – Position Statement

The Board of the Broadford and Strath Community Company and the Broadford and Strath Community Council support the Position Statement initially released jointly by the Portree and Braes Community Trust and Portree and Braes Community Council regarding the proposed wind farm developments for Skye.

Whilst we support the need for renewable sources of energy we have concerns about the scale of developments planned for Skye, the huge environmental impact of the proposed developments and the levels, and distribution, of community benefits.

As a community our aim is to create a strong, self-sufficient, inclusive and eco-friendly community. We want and need to increase community resilience and well-being. We want to reduce depopulation. Our biggest assets – our landscape, environment and natural heritage – are central to achieving those aims. Indeed, they are the cornerstones on which our island economy is based.

We believe the scale and ownership of the windfarms currently being proposed are a huge threat to these assets. We acknowledge the need for renewable energy. We know that windfarms will happen. However, we would like to see this take place on our Skye community’s terms. We would like the Skye community as a whole to decide where turbines are placed and the size of turbines. We want to see job creation and opportunities to help reduce depopulation. But most importantly we would like to see the majority of any windfarms developed on Skye to be community owned.

In a progressive and fair Scotland, communities must have a say in the important decisions about land that affect them.* We ask the Scottish Government and the Energy Consent Unit (ECU) to please start listening to this community before our valuable assets are lost forever.